This morning arrived with tossing and turning as it was a humid night. Yvonne, Wynne, Tara, Sharon & Allan headed out to the barrio out past Rivas. They were invited to see what the Canadian group COMMIT is doing there with the families. This group is sponsored by the Stratford Rotary. They do similar projects to PAN Missions as teaching sewing, music and trades as well as organic gardening and digging wells. They stay at an orphanage and then drive an hour into the barrios where they work.
The rest of us at PAN had a more leisurely breakfast and discussed our plans for the day. Ron led devotions this morning with the bible quote given at the top of the page here. He spoke of asking the Lord to enlarge our territories and expanding your world as we feel we are doing here in Jardin Shalom. Asking the Lord to be with you and keep you from evil is so important because we will all learn some day, some way that we cannot do this alone. And in knowing that, asking for the Lord’s help allowed Jabez to accept God’s help.
The morning was spent doing lots of little odd jobs, like preparing the bags for the barrio walk later on, sorting clothes that we were giving out, and doing a shopping list for later. Dawn hobbled back from the build site with more damage to an already aggravated knee. Ron and Kurt and Jennifer started on the kitchen chairs taking the seats off, scraping and sanding the rust off the metal frames and giving them a fresh coat of paint. Once showered and changed, I went over to Pan de Vida to see how the work on the Pastor’s house has progressed. I was very impressed. They are doing a great job. We chatted and I took photos and generally humoured them and made them laugh.
This afternoon, we visited El Portillo, the barrio that is just down the road. It is here that the children and crocheters are from that we have been working with this trip. Some of our team have special connections with people here. We also received an invitation to a party here for this coming Saturday. Karen turned 15 today, Wednesday, and it is at this age that a young lady is celebrated as becoming a woman. We had a card and gift for her but she wasn’t home, she was out with her mother.
From there we went to the village of Nindiri. There is a barrio just outside of the dump that earns their living from pulling out recycling and selling it to the trucks that come in. We had a good visit with the Pastor there, and delivered clothes, shampoos, lotions, soaps, etc,
There is water coming into their barrio, one tap per family. The water gets turned on for 1 hour, every other day. It was on while we were there so we saw one family filling buckets to save for use later.
That’s it for Wednesday’s news.
P.S. Here is a beautiful Nicaraguan sunset for you to dream on.
Thursday, January 30th
We opened our doors this morning to a bright sunshiny morning. Just a light breeze going through. After breakfast, I popped out to the kitchen gardens and saw that shoots were up in the squash and cucumber beds that Sharon and I planted just 6 days ago (Jan 24). Of course, I got excited as I generally do about gardens and insisted everyone come see my babies. It was a delightful way to start the morning.
Yvonne gave devotional today rooted in the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 and a story about stone soup! It was a reminder that we each bring what we have and yet, together we are so much more.
We had a bit of waiting to do before going to El Portillo to work. While waiting, Jesika showed us the items that she had made (a small purse, a head band, a wrist band and lots of flowers). Judy and Marta will work with the children and Jesika, Jonathan and I will work with the crocheters. Jesika walks to Jardin Shalom from the house they are living in. Jesika and her husband are looking after a property for someone who owns several properties so they are given the house to live in while they are here. Their actual home is about 1-1/2 hours away. She has advanced very quickly with her crocheting and has been a willing teacher to others. She has quickly become the leader of these girls and has demonstrated her willingness to work with them. The van delivered us with 2 tables about 10:30am and we got to work! The five women around the table learned crocheting in the round and double crochet (punto alto). Daisy, Jesika, Frances, Rosa and Karen started the base of a water bottle holder. This will also teach them increasing and decreasing. They experimented with different types of yarns and sized hooks and found what worked best for them. After asking them all what their ages were, we finally realized that Karen is our birthday girl! So we brought the children over and sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish. There were also 2 puppies that were having great fun while we were there.
12 o’clock came all too soon and we packed up and promised to see each other on Monday. They were all given extra yarn to practice their trade. Back to Jardin Shalom for lunch and some itinerary adjustments. This afternoon Karen’s Pastor & his wife brought her over to visit us so we could give her our gifts and card. When a young lady turns 15 in Nicaragua, she is given a great party to celebrate becoming a woman. This is called a Quinzenera. We had a lovely visit and asked the Pastor what advice he had for her. He said he would give her 3 things as advice: Follow God, study hard and then, you can find a boyfriend! We all thought this was great advice!
After a lovely meal of pasta and chicken, we each went to do laundry or blogging or Board work. The Board members on their retreat have had several meetings. They certainly work hard for the organization.
Blessings to all,
Buenos Noches (Good Night!)
Suzie
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